Sunday, November 30, 2014

I’m back with another page of digital “art.” This time it’s actually a scrapbook page!Credits: Dawn Inskip, Create collection; Manuela Zimmerman, Sound of Music; Studio Viva, Revel-Alissa, font – Harabara Hand
I don’t normally scrapbook in the traditional sense. Our pre-digital photos are all stuck in those “magnetic” albums with no notes beyond an occasional date. Of course, nowadays we realize how insecure those albums were. I’ve been trying to scan photos, but it’s all in fits and starts. These photos are all from the early 1970s and when I notice a theme developing I decided to do this page. Just for fun!
About half way through, I realized that I could use this for The Digi Dares Dare #392. The dare requirements are (1) use a layout that goes from edge to edge. Check. (2) use paper strips. Check (although I used just one, it counts!). (3) use two photos, one horizontal and one vertical. Check. Yeah, I know there are more than two photos, but I think I nailed the horizontal vs. vertical thing!
If you’d like to see other interpretations of this dare, head on over to the Digi Dares web site and read the comments for Dare #392.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

I have been spending Sundays this year, working on digital art journal pages. I’ve managed to keep up all year, as well as learn my around Photoshop Elements. Pretty well, if I do say so myself!
Since it is November, I’m thinking about what I will do next year. The Art Journal Caravan will not continue next year, so I have looked around to see what else I might be interested in.
One option is The Digi Dares. I guess the only way to tell if I like it is to dive in! So this is my page for Dare #393. The focus is on daily gratitude for the little things. You can find the terms of this Dare here.
Credits:
The Daily Digi – Inbox Party, Amanda Yi – You’re the One That I Want, Studio Ztampf – Enter the Dragon, Lynn Anzelc – Together, Cinzia – Holiday Cheer.
My regular readers (all 3 of you!) will recognize Jake and Barney. These fur babies never fail to make me smile and I’m so thankful to have them.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

I finished these three quilts today. By “finished” I mean “attached the labels.” Two of them were waiting for the third to catch up. How about a little story?

This summer I went on a Shop Hop and bought three charm packs with the intention of making some pinwheel quilts. The method is super simple . . . place two charms right sides together and stitch on all four edges. Cut each pair from corner to corner twice – like an X. Press the HSTs that result and sew them back together.

Quilt #1:

I paired all the charms from one package, which resulted in 21 blocks. That’s not enough for a lap quilt, so I dug around in my stash and found this green that worked great with the collections (Moda’s Merriment). A quarter yard of red and it’s ready to quilt.

For some reason, I decided to do the border with parallel lines . . . 3/8 of an inch apart. Do you have any idea how long it takes to stitch all those lines?!?!! That was just toooo much!

Quilt #2:

In the meantime, I’ve read an article that says you need two charm packs for a lap size quilt. So I picked out a Bella Solid or two (or three, they’re inexpensive!) to coordinate with this collection (Moda’s Snowbird). Not bad, but it needs a border, so back to buy some yardage from the collection. So much for “just a charm pack!”

Hoping to save on quilting time, I decided on a meandering ribbon pattern. It’s been awhile since I’ve done any free motion quilting and I guess I should have done a little practice first. My ribbons are too far apart and pretty jerky and lumpy. This time it was toooo little.

Quilt #3:

At this point I’m thinking I’d like to try something different. What if I added strips to make bigger blocks? And how about some sashing, too. That works pretty well and since I was buying fabric anyway, I got some yardage to match this collection, too. This is my favorite anyway – Snowman Frolic. Those snowmen are just too cute!

I found a fairly easy quilting pattern involving wavy lines and circles. It went much better, probably because I was already warmed up from the second quilt. On the borders I did a wide diagonal grid which worked up nice and quick. This one was juuuuust right!

Now I know how Goldilocks felt!

These three quilts are destined to go to my quilt guild’s charity project. I enjoyed making the pinwheels, but I think I’ve done enough for now. Time to get back to something more complex. Hmmm. Maybe some paper piecing.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

So . . . the other day I was thinking about this blog . . . and wondering why I don’t seem to have anything to say lately. I mean, it’s not like I’m not doing anything “blogworthy.” I have dozens of project in the works. Then I realized that while I’m very good at starting interesting projects . . . I don’t seem to be very good at finishing many of them!

So, you could say I have a lot of PHDs – or Projects Half Done!

Once I realized how bad it has gotten (there really are a lot. of. phds!), I had a stern talk with myself. (Yes, I do talk to myself quite a bit – doesn’t everyone?) And we (myself and I) agreed that I must try harder to finish something. Maybe a lot of somethings! And I got to work. And lo, it was good!

You might recognize the legs from one of my (rare) recent posts. This project was an online class by Deb Wood on A-for-Artistic. Such a lot of fun to do.

I had some learning experiences, of course. I love the way her nose has extra color – but it isn’t from painting/blushing it. It’s from burning! The oven got a little too warm – it does that sometimes – and the nose and top of head got darker than the rest of her. Hair and the hat took care of the top of her head. And I could not have done such a good job if I’d painted the nose!

Here’s the hat waiting to be donned. Behind it, you can see extra hands. There were some problems there, as well, but eventually a pair turned out how I wanted. Anyone need an extra hand? It’s green, but still useful!

OK. So that’s one Finished project (FP). I will be searching through PHDs for something else suitable for finishing. I think I’ll follow Mary Corbet’s guidelines for deciding. You can read her thoughts on UFOs on Needle n Thread.